+Ella and Chris formed the re bolting duo for second half of Mongol Rally; in which Ella held the vital task of sitting in the emergency shelter for 5 hours, only with a mild set in of hypothermia. Chris later revelled in retelling his tale of encountering a figure of 8 knot half way down the 100m rope while rigging. + +Finally, our work was done, seamlessly timed Alice and Jointy’s appearance from their escapade too. Deliriously, camp was established. Chris provided the impeccable culinary experience of curry and couscous as head camp chef. +
+Up at 1pm, Our plan for the day was to push leads below Tartarus. At the pitch head, the deterring sound of unpleasant water echoed. The executive decision by captain Jornty to turn back was sealed at the sight of the rigging rope - that seemed to be more mud than rope. +
+Instead, these good citizens carried the rope shaped mud back for a good wash at camp. Alice and Jononoty bolt climbed a potential lead, a nice chamber was found but no other ways on. Chris also poked around interesting holes below, one of which even connected with the bolt climb! Ella was also there. +
+Returned from the frontier, the cave link set-up was attempted back at the trenches (camp). Despite mud being everywhere from in the tent to in our curry somehow, there was none where we needed it to be for the cave link antenna. A scene reminiscent of playing in a sand pit, as mud was put into piles and poked and poured with water over the antenna, ensued. Thankfully, Alice and Jorn did some serious fettling, and an hour or two later, the antenna resistance went from “very bad” to “poor”. Though, contact with top camp was still out of reach. +
+Despite Alice falling into “a hole the size of Tatarus” in the corner of the tent relentlessly the whole night, and Cunty experiencing a second night in a sleeping bag “ideal for warm summer nights”, the team awoke early (ish) for a day of prussicing. Though the biggest challenge of the day for Ella and Alice, was finishing their breakfast-couscous-soup . +
+Fumbling with the challenge of differentiating Pantins from Spathas in their mud clogged state, the ascent began. Manually opening and closing atleast one jammer with each prussic is an interesting sport. Ella and Chris chose the leisurely option, and arrived at top camp 3 hours after Malice and Jonny. Mmmmm couscous. +